The Hazel Green herald. [volume] (Hazel Green, Wolfe County, Ky.) 1885-19??, 1887-10-28

most before they were aware. Every
day out of that week. for at least an
hour. Fred had spent over his list of
words, and he had the satisfaction of
knowing that out of those four hun-
dred and fifty words there was not one
he could fail on; and then, besides the
regular list, he had added about fifty
OF his own, and Five hundred regular
catch-words are not few" he had told
himself, with pardonable pride.
With Philip it was different He had
not seen the inside of speller, except
in school hours, and when asked by
some of his studious boy friends why
he did not study, replied, rs he had to
his mother, that lit was not necessary
for him to study, and. anyhow, base
ball matches were far more important
than spelling bees any day."
Miss Belcher had hired small hall
for the occasion, with a square plat
form, on which her twenty boys could
sit comfortably in circle without
being crowded. There were fifteen
rows of benches for the audience to
occupy, each bench seating about ten,
and they were all well filled with the
boys parents and friends, who had
come either to congratulate or condole
with them.
Miss Belcher, with her roll of words,
sat in a high chair to one side, facing
the audience, while on q table beside
her were the two dictionaries, Web
ster and Worcester, so that there could
be no dispute over the different ways
of spelling the words.
She was a very stiff, middle-aged
lady, with light curls, and looked ex-
ceedingly stern; but she was by no
means disagreeable, and the boys all
liked her immensely. She was gener-
ally spoken of as being "crisp and
abrupt, but undeniably just
At eight o'clock precisely Miss Bel
cher tapped bell, and it Immediately
commanded silence. Then, smiling,
and shaking her curls, she leisurely
unrolled her manuscript and turned to
the boys.
II hope, my dear pupils" began
Miss Bclcher, in her sharp, quick voice,
"that you will all do me. credit this
evening. l hope particularly that you
have all studied, and though you all
can not win, it will be plain to both
myself and the assembled audience
here, who have been the studious ones.
On other occasions of the kind, more
through chance than any thing else,
my most indolcnt pupils won the prize.
Then there was no studying allowed.
Now we shall see"
And, smiling more broadly than ever,
Miss Beicher gave her curls another
shake.
BY some unlucliy chance Philip was
number one. How he got there he
never knew. but he would have pre-
ferred greatly to have been anywhere
else. So much was expected of head
boy, and he looked little enviously at
Fred, who was number sixteen or seven
teen.
Number one-twelfthw
And Phil positively jumped, so sharp
and sudden was the little word said.
1t was like Miss Belchcr to hurl word
at fellow like that, and he felt very
indignant, but catching the eyes of
the audience beginning to twinkle as
he hesitated, he spelled it quickly, and
was rather surprised to hear the same
sharp voice say Correct" he was
so certain he spelled it wrong.
The fifth boy failed on Forty" and
went shame-faced outside the circle.
Phil laughed to himself, and won
dered why the boy should blush. lie
would not have cared. The boy was
scared, no doubt, and knew how to
spell the word well enough.
At the end of the second round, six
boys had failed, but Fred still kept his
place. and was now only a few chairs
from Phil, who became more nervous
at each word that fell from Miss
Belcher's firm lips.
Number one again-gensdarmesH'
"What was the word, please, Miss
Belcher?"
Miss Belcher repeated it, while a
faint smile lowered about her mouth.
She was waiting for Phil to fail, being
well acquainted with his lazy habits,
and did not pity him in the least.
at means q color, here in Ameri-
ca" she explained, as Phil still hesi-
tated-"the color of the uniform worn
by policemen in France"
But poor Phil made no attempt to
II - A.. 60, La nn,,lI Ahi,,I-